engleski

Vertebral Arteries-Morphologic And Hemodynamic Differences Between Men And Women

Studies have shown that men and women differ in diameters and mean blood flow velocities (MBFV) in vertebral arteries (VA). The aim of this study is to compare morphology and hemodynamics of VA between men and women in the Croatian population. We examined 155 subjects (68 men and 87 women) with no apparent pathology of vertebral arteries (occlusion, hypoplasia, aplasia of VA or severe hemodynamic changes), using a linear 10 mHz probe on Aloka Prosound SSD-5500. Measurements were obtained in the V2 segment of VA, most commonly between vertebrae C6-C5. The criteria were: normal VA diameter of 2-4 mm, systolic MBFV of 0.35-0.70 m/s, and normal resistance pattern. We investigated the following parameters: diameter of right VA, diameter of left VA, MBFV in right VA, MBFV in left VA, sum of diameters of right and left VA, sum of MBFVs in right and left VA, diameter of the narrower VA, and diameter of the wider VA, and age. We obtained following results: there were 68 men (43, 9%) and 87 women (56, 1%) ; 88 had dominant left VA (37 men-56% and 51 woman-58%), and 11 (7%) showed no dominance. The two groups showed statistically significant differences: men had wider VAs (larger sum of left VA and right VA diameter), and larger diameter of the “ wider” VA. We didn’ t find a statistically significant difference in MBFVs between men and women, nor in the diameter of “ smaller” VA. This investigation showed dominance of left VA in diameter (57%) in both men and women, as was presented by some authors in earlier investigations. But, as opposed to earlier findings, this investigation showed no difference in MBFVs of both men and women. This investigation also showed that men have a larger sum of both VA diameters and a larger diameter of the wider VA which leads to a conclusion that men have wider VA than women.

vertebral arteries; epidemiology; Croatia

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